Our Story

Where sports will take you...

After that first trip and the memories that were created, I knew in my gut this thing had the potential to reach thousands. And I felt responsible to make that happen.

— MVP Co-Founder, Mark 'Pudge' Gjormand

In 1998, if you had strolled up the long entrance to James Madison High School in Vienna, VA and met Warhawk baseball coach, Mark 'Pudge' Gjormand, he would have bet you a million dollars that he wouldn't have gone to 12+ countries in the next two decades, and he would've doubled that if you had said he would get to bring his passion for baseball into the international community.

It all started back in 2008, when coach Pudge was offered an opportunity to coach 'Team Virginia' in Germany. He laughed. But after a convincing conversation with his wife Beth, more consideration of what this could be, and a lot of uncertainty, he took the chance.

Within 3 years and after 2 more trips to the Dominican Republic and Italy, coach Pudge saw the potential and true transformative power of these experiences that come from combining sports, education, international travel, culture, and family vacation.

He felt a sense of responsibility and took it upon himself to bring these trips to the community at large, and in a way that no one else was doing it. He teamed up with former Madison player, Matt Foley in 2013 and the duo officially opened the doors of MVP International Athletics. The next spring, in 2014 the MVP team slowly began to add another Madison baseball alumni to their team to help with international logistics, Eli Facenda, who was studying abroad in Spain at the time. In the last few years as the word of mouth has spread in the DMV area, the organization has expanded with rapid growth into new sports, ages, destinations, and trip concepts.

Since inception, the MVP International program has developed 9 sports, visited over 20 countries, played 150+ international teams, but most importantly....

has created ENDLESS memories with hundreds of families, athletes, coaches, and others.